***
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been sitting there. Long enough to feel cold. Long enough to feel dead. I sensed her moving up the road but I didn’t look up. Even as she leaned over me, something red and shiny and soft slipping over my skin, I didn’t move. Her lips were by my ear, breathing my name, other words I couldn’t quite understand. Her hands slipped into mine, twisting, gripping me tight, and it was that small weight that cracked me. That made it feel okay to spill into her lap. So I did. Burying my face. Letting her string herself through the pieces of me, binding them, making me feel whole. Just for a second, our threads entwined, I remembered how to breathe. I remembered. I remembered.
I finally looked up at her, tears spilling down her cheeks. Make-up smeared. Her green eyes pale.
“Roman.”
“I remember,” I said.
“What do you remember?”
“Everything.”
Chapter 32
Bryn